A 15-year-old student was arrested and charged with m*rder Wednesday morning after he allegedly shot and k!lled another 15-year-old student outside their Pittsburgh school. Police said Derrick Harris was found outside the Oliver Citywide Academy front steps at approximately 7:30 a.m. with gunshot wounds.
Eleven shots were fired, according to the gunshot detector. According to Major Crimes Commander Richard Ford, Harris was pronounced de@d at the hospital despite being taken there in critical condition. Another 15-year-old student was apprehended and a gun was confiscated after an officer saw him fleeing the school with it, Ford said.
The student was both Jaymier Perry and Jamier Perry, according to documents filed in court. He faced charges of m*rder, juvenile in possession of a handgun, and illegal carry of a firearm. The police say that Perry was arrested and brought to the county jail. There was no defense attorney listed in the court documents.
The news can be confirmed by the tweet below:
Teen charged in shooting death of schoolmate outside Pittsburgh school https://t.co/qXI30rE1it pic.twitter.com/j9hmVA9Naa
— azfamily 3TV CBS 5 (@azfamily) May 24, 2023
The local school district’s website said that, Oliver Citywide Academy is a comprehensive special education facility for students in grades 3 through 12. The cause of the gunsh*t was unclear at first. According to city spokesman Maria Montano, most students were still on their way to school when the incident occurred, and buses were sent to another school facility.
Classes were canceled for the day, but those students already inside the school were held there. “We believe, based on the information that we have and the video we’ve been able to see, that we have the actor in custody and there’s no potential threat to the other schools,” Ford said.
Larry Scirotto, the city’s newly confirmed police chief, spent his first full day on the job Tuesday visiting the scene, where he called the violence “unacceptable.” To WTAE-TV, Scirotto said, “The tragedies cannot continue unchecked,” and he pledged to attempt to reassure parents that “when they send their kids to school that their kids won’t become a victim of gun violence.”
If you’d want more information, check out these links from the California Examiner:
- Thailand Air Force Claims U.S. Denied F-35 Jet Purchase Request
- Carrollton Man Gets 43 Years in Federal Prison for K!lling Ex-girlfriend
Students who were impacted by the sh*oting will be connected with resources, Mayor Ed Gainey said. “No child should ever have to fear going to school, and no parent should ever worry about their child never coming home,” Gainey said.
“We have cultivated a culture of violence and de@th, celebrated guns, and glorified sh*oting,” he said in a statement. “… We have to cultivate a new culture, create a new path forward for our kids.” A little over a year had passed since another student had been m*rdered at the same institution.
Marquis Campbell, a 15-year-old, was sh*t and died in January 2022 while waiting for a school transport to take him home. Campbell knew the alleged shooters, who are brothers, from another school. They were arrested and charged with m*rder and conspiracy earlier this year. A year ago, on the same day, 19 children and two instructors were k!lled in a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.
If you want to know about anything nefarious going on in California or the surrounding states, The California Examiner is the newspaper for you.